Our Board Members

I moved to Asheville in 2007 because I was drawn to the beautiful mountains and all that they had to offer an outdoor enthusiast. My intentions were to only stay for a few years, and then move onto my next adventure, as I had been traveling all over the country as a Traveling RN — specializing in critical care and emergency medicine. But I could not leave. I became involved in the local animal rescue scene very quickly and realized that there was not enough being done in the community to help animals. I also realized that there was no real sense of urgency to help save animals, even though, at that time, they were dying by the thousands every year. I created Brother Wolf because our community was yearning for a No-Kill organization that was grass roots and very much a voice of the community. We first started rescuing dogs only, but as my understanding, love, and respect for other animals grew, so did our rescue work. We have evolved to be an organization whose core ethic of Uncompromised Compassion extends to all animals- human and non-human alike. I am blessed to be living at the Brother Wolf Animal Sanctuary right now with my fiance, 6 dogs, 2 cats, 16 pigs, and 7 cows.

Ashley Capps received an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop; her first book of poems is Mistaking the Sea for Green Fields. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, she works as a writer, editor, and researcher specializing in farmed animal welfare and vegan advocacy. Ashley has written for numerous animal rights organizations, and is a core staff writer and editor for Free from Harm, a farmed animal advocacy organization, and A Well-Fed World, a plant-based hunger relief and food justice non-profit. She is also the writer and director for Humane Facts, a campaign devoted to dismantling the humane animal farming myth. In 2016, Ashley founded Mothers Against Dairy, a campaign devoted to spotlighting anti-dairy perspectives from vegan mothers, and in 2017, she launched Milk Hurts, a comprehensive anti-dairy campaign and website focused on all the harms of dairy: to animals, human health, and the environment, with a special focus on debunking “humane” dairy trends and myths. For more on Ashley’s writing, visit her website.

Evan is currently the Executive Assistant at Conserving Carolina, a land trust in Hendersonville, NC. In addition, Evan recently completed his M.S. in Sustainability Studies from Lenoir-Rhyne University. His master’s thesis explored the intersections between veganism and sustainability. Evan is particularly knowledgeable about the environmental impacts of animal agriculture, and the environmental benefits associated with transitions to plant-based diets. While Evan is an environmental professional, he views veganism as both a necessary social justice philosophy and as a powerful strategy for sustainability. Overall, Evan is interested in cultivating a sustainable world in which all life has the ability to flourish. Evan is excited to join Brother Wolf, an organization that is giving countless nonhuman animals a chance to flourish.

Dustin Rhodes is the director of development and a staff writer/researcher for Friends of Animals — an international animal advocacy organization that was founded in 1957. Dustin is a graduate of Warren Wilson College, and has been an animal fanatic for his entire life. During the ten years he has worked with Friends of Animals, he has become passionate about sanctuary work (Friends of Animals manages a primate sanctuary in San Antonio, Texas and supports a chimpanzee project in The Gambia, Africa), shelter work (especially the work of creating no-kill shelters), and — through his writing assignments and research for Friends of Animals — has become passionate about the issue of human overpopulation, which Friends of Animals sees as interconnected with animal rights. Dustin views the vegan ethic as central to animal rights and liberation and strives to be the same patient and kind vegan who inspired him to make the life-changing decision to not exploit animals.